PSA: Duck Season

[Shady]

Duck season in MD opens tomorrow. Please be mindful of hunters if you are out fishing for stripers in the creeks and rivers of the chesapeake.

[rob-kayak]

Thanks for the heads up... also... a little heads up
Beverly Triton Beach will have managed deer hunts
Friday, November 4,
Wednesday, November 9
and Friday, November 18, 2016

[summersoff]

Good point. Was out yesterday below Crisfield in VA and heard a number of Kabows! Kept me out of the normal creek I usually sneak up. I can only image the va season started, or a lot can shooting is going on.

[kevinfry]

Duck season in MD opens tomorrow. Please be mindful of hunters if you are out fishing for stripers in the creeks and rivers of the chesapeake.

so how did you do? I just bought a kayak friendly hunting dog. An American Water Spaniel ......his name is Mook. Hopefully in a year we'll be learning to hunt!

[mi327]

My neighbor told me that the Lower Susquehanna is closed on Sunday to hunting, but I do not see that listed anywhere online. Can anyone confirm this? I was out fishing this morning and didn't see any hunters but then again it was really foggy until about 10:30AM

[bch89]

My neighbor told me that the Lower Susquehanna is closed on Sunday to hunting, but I do not see that listed anywhere online. Can anyone confirm this? I was out fishing this morning and didn't see any hunters but then again it was really foggy until about 10:30AM

Most hunting is closed on Sundays unless it's private land.

"Migratory game birds may not be hunted on Sundays."

http://www.eregulations.com/maryland...-bird-hunting/

[scott taylor]

Thanks Ryan for the reminder:

For those not familiar you may also come across gunning from boats across the water.......a couple of seasons back I was on the Choptank and from a distance noticed an anchored dead rise boat in the 40' size range. I was hoping they would lead me to rockfish but as I closed on the boat I saw they were blasting away at sea ducks....
I have also come across jon-boats loaded down with camo....a virtual floating duck blind. When not gunning they tend to be as quiet as we are....

[Big Mike]

I was in Cuckold Creek (Clark's Landing) this morning when I heard very close shotgun blasts. A person has a duck blind on their property just around the corner from Stoney's restaurant and with houses all around and across the inlet. I was shocked someone would be shooting in such a heavily populated area and I had been thinking of going around that corner. Glad I didn't.

[brianisoutside]

I was in Cuckold Creek (Clark's Landing) this morning when I heard very close shotgun blasts. A person has a duck blind on their property just around the corner from Stoney's restaurant and with houses all around and across the inlet. I was shocked someone would be shooting in such a heavily populated area and I had been thinking of going around that corner. Glad I didn't.

Bird shot tends to loose energy quickly. Duck hunters only need to be 150 yards from an occupied dwelling.


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[Big Mike]

Bird shot tends to loose energy quickly. Duck hunters only need to be 150 yards from an occupied dwelling.


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There are definetly occupied homes within 150 yards of the shooting zone of this blind (not homes to the sides but homes that could reasonably be hit by an errant shot). They would need to practice strict firing lanes to avoid having stray shot hit homes.

[ReelLucky22]

I was shot last year while fishing on the susquehanna river. There are duck blinds on some islands that are part of susquehanna state park. I had paddled to a different spot and had no idea hunters were around. Then I heard a bang! And I had pellets raining down all over my kayak. Then the hunters yelled and asked me to move, there were no ducks around at the time. They shot at me to make me move. I wasn't injured, but could've been. It's happened to others too.

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[Mark]

I am not a hunter so please forgive these potentially naïve questions...

What are the rules of the road (water) when duck hunters and anglers meet. Sometimes the hunters are so well camouflaged that you don't see them or their decoys until you are in their range of fire.

Obviously for safety it would not be wise to deliberately troll close to a flock of decoys.

But how much water can duck hunters command? Do they have the right to chase you from a cove with verbal warnings and/or hand signals even if you are beyond 150 yards of their blind? If they fire and hit you at any range are they responsible or are you at fault for wondering into to area?

[Huntrava]

If they fire and hit you at any range are they responsible or are you at fault for wondering into to area?

Not a lawyer, so take this with a grain of salt. But I'm fairly certain hunters are not supposed to shoot people, period. As to whether you can move through their space/decoys, this is one instance where it's better to be decent than right.

[Mark]

Not a lawyer, so take this with a grain of salt. But I'm fairly certain hunters are not supposed to shoot people, period. As to whether you can move through their space/decoys, this is one instance where it's better to be decent than right.

I would hope hunters are legally responsible for their shots.

I recently encountered two hunters hiding in reeds, not a blind, which of course is a structure very noticeable to humans, not to the unfortunate ducks. I had no idea the hunters were there until they popped up and signaled me to leave area. It was only then I noticed their decoys. I moved well away, farther than 150 yards for sure, but the hunters still were not happy that I had ventured into their area.

They had guns so I yielded the water to them. But something seemed not right to me about them being in that spot. They had no blind and they were in a very enclosed area subject to angler pressure. They wanted me completely out.

In open water, where you can see a blind and a spread of decoys certainly you need to avoid the area. But in small coves, which kayakers frequently target, it's easy to inadvertently venture into duck hunters who are concealed by the natural vegetation along the shoreline.

Be careful out there.

[Big Mike]

In all fairness to the hunters, they do have very limited seasons to pursue certain waterfowl, and they can't shoot on a Sunday. Imagine how you would feel if you only had two weeks out of the year to fish for stripers and you found water skiers blasting along the shore you'd picked out months before (a shore that you may have had to apply for a permit to fish). You might be inclined to have a discussion with them. Fortunately for us most of their seasons are after many of us have put away our kayaks for the winter. In my situation in Cuckold I just didn't bother to fish that stretch of water, there is almost always another spot that could hold fish in places I've been to.

There is no excuse for ever shooting in the direction of a person and irresponsible hunters, just like irresponsible fisherman, give a black eye to the entire community. As sportsman we need to respect each other's activity and hold ourselves to higher standards than expected, after all there are plenty of community activists looking for reasons to further restrict any use of our public waters and land.